Five Great Healers Speak Here

Author(s): Nancy, Esmond Gardner
Publisher: Theosophical Publishing House

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FIVE GREAT HEALERS SPEAK HERE
ka, in Sanskrit it is called prana, in Tibetan ylur, and among the Hawaiian Kahuna its name is mana. Whatever the culture, however, the healer goes through a personalized ritual, an individualized experience in interiorization in order to heal. In this book we have five such accounts from healers of extensive experience.
In reviewing the literature on healing, one is impressed that although healing per se is not restricted to one belief system, nevertheless, there is a general concurrence of opinion among healers, even though they may come from the most disparate of cultures, on how the healing of human beings occurs. LeShan made a survey of the literature in order to seek out “... explanations or theories of explanations” and found that they could be categorized into three general classes:
1. The largest number of healers described their work as “prayer,” and they considered their success to be due to the direct intervention of God.
2. A second group was quite certain that the healings were done by “spirits,” that the person who was playing the role of healer in some manner had created a "special" linkage between these spirits and the healee.
3. A third group believed that they were transmitters, channels or originators of a unique type of energy which had healing effects.
Dr. LeShan was concerned with the question of the relationship of the paranormal to the world of everyday reality. What the present book explores through the experiences of five well-known healers is this question (paraphrasing LeShan): What is the relationship between the healer and the rest of reality at the moment of the healing enactment? From this brief collation of the philosophies of five healers, each with a significantly different cultural background and healing mode, we can see that a valid argument can be developed for a consistency of experience between these healers and their universe at